Global hotel management company, Valor Hospitality is celebrating once again after being named as a ‘best place to work in hospitality’ in the UK for the third time in five years.
The award comes less than twelve months on since Valor doubled the size of its UK portfolio, taking its count of UK hotels to 37 and total team members to 3,000.
During what has been a particularly difficult time for the hospitality sector, Valor has consistently put its people first, acutely aware that it’s the team that will create memorable customer experiences and deliver exceptional commercial performance.
Throughout the height of Covid-19 lockdowns, with the hospitality sector frequently cited as one of the hardest hit, Valor heavily invested in its teams’ health and wellbeing.
Ensuring they had access to mental health first aiders and regular one-to-one check-ins, listening to the concerns of the team post lockdown. In response, Valor launched initiatives such as ‘Healthy Habits’ to help colleagues make positive changes to their daily routines, as many cited poor health habits emerging during the lockdown.
Valor’s focus on engagement, which included the integration of the new hotels within the portfolio with its existing team members, resulted in 80% of its colleagues citing in an employee survey that their wellbeing has returned to pre-pandemic or improved levels.
The survey showcased Valor’s strengths based on the opinions of its people. The key areas that employees felt Valor excelled in were ‘creating a safe and positive work environment,’ ‘the respect for a work-life balance’ and ‘having supportive, positive and inspiring leaders’.
Brian McCarthy, managing director UK & Europe, at Valor Hospitality, noted, “Eight years ago, we set out to form an organisation that would be a great place to work, driven by our obsession with team member engagement and commercial expertise. We have always been firm believers that if you look after your people, then success will follow, and we’ve seen that first-hand.
“We now work with two highly motivated partners in the UK, managing almost 40 hotels, with 80 worldwide, and despite all the challenges we have faced, our principles never wavered.
“Our commitment to our people is at all levels of the business, from investing in wellbeing, to Future Leaders programmes, as well as the recently launched Chef Academy apprenticeship scheme which aims to help train the next generation of culinary superstars. We know that happy and fulfilled colleagues will be what takes us into the next step in our growth journey and we’re excited for what’s to come.”
Following its exponential growth over recent years, Valor hopes to announce further partnerships in the coming months. The ambition comes at a prime time for the sector, as according to Knight Frank’s UK Hotel Capital Markets Review, it predicts that increased volumes of portfolios will be coming to the market and hotel investment is set to rise to £5bn.
“We’re at an incredibly exciting point in our business plan and as the hospitality sector continues to navigate a number of challenges, we are primed to help hotel owners with properties in distress to turn them around,” added Brian.
“We know what works here in the UK, and we have a global network of incredibly talented colleagues and superb hotels that share learnings from around the world, which puts us in a fantastic position to make our growth ambitions a reality.”
Valor Hospitality was also listed in the top six places to work in hospitality by The Catey Awards 2022.